


A Good Day

by myscribblings



Series: Tumblr Star Wars POC Positivity Month [3]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars
Genre: AU, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-24
Updated: 2020-01-24
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:22:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,493
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22389394
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/myscribblings/pseuds/myscribblings
Summary: This was for the SW POC Positivity, Day 23: Rogue One AU where no one dies. Which serves as both explanation and summary.
Series: Tumblr Star Wars POC Positivity Month [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1611556
Kudos: 6





	A Good Day

“The Force is with me. I am one with the Force. The Force is with me. I am one with the ULP!”  
Chirrut felt the cable wrap around his torso, then was jerked off his feet and sailed through the air. He felt the heat of the blast, burning at the soles of his feet. He barely kept hold of his staff as he landed in a heap.  
“Are you all right?” It was, of course, Baze’s voice.  
“The rescue could have been more graceful.”  
He could hear some blaster fire, and then a short pause. “Is that all you have to say?”  
“Thank you.”  
“What about trusting in the Force?”  
He got to his feet and felt for the cover before saying, “I did. I told you. It’s why I have you.”  
“We will talk later. Here they come.”  
Chirrut heard soldiers closing. He swung, knocking the first one to the ground. They were still most likely going to die, he knew. But at least they would die together, and for a cause worth fighting for.

K2 was making calculations, playing out scenarios as he slowly, over the space of agonizing microseconds, shut down. None of them were possible, of course. Fantasizing ways for Cassian to live. One impossible scenario after another.  
Then, two unexpected things occurred.  
The first was in the data stream that had just been sent to the rebels. A tiny thing, a second plan by a father desperate to protect his daughter from a supremely unlikely threat. A threat she was about to die from. He didn’t like her, she had caused all this, but he still sent the signal. Maybe it would work, and marginally increased the odds of Cassian’s survival.  
The second, he had to speed up his perceptions for. More blaster fire even though he was already disabled. One of the Imperials fell next to him. He had to admit it gave him a feeling like pleasure. It was probably due to the damage in his cognitive circuits.  
He heard them speaking before shutting down completely. “What, the droid, too?”  
“Those are our orders. It’s mostly intact, but get all the parts you can find back to the ship. And hurry.”

Bodhi couldn’t reach the grenade in time, but he had the ship’s guts exposed in front of him. In desperation, he slapped some of the wiring together, and the thrusters roared to life, tilting the ship, almost flipping it over.  
The soldier that had thrown the grenade registered with shock that it bounced back out of the ship, just as it exploded.  
The ship crashed back to the ground hard enough that he knew he was going to bruise from slamming into the floor, but he didn’t think anything was broken. Well, no more broken, anyway. He was sure the blast and the fall had damaged the ship enough to make it unusable, though.  
He’d known he wasn’t going to make it, but he ran from the ship, keeping his head down as best he could. Surviving was a habit he wasn’t going to break until it was broken for him.

Raddus looked down at the message. They had an unknown benefactor, or so they would have him believe.  
There was no point in not taking precautions, though. He chose a heading at random and had the flagship brought around. No transmission, no message that might be intercepted and deciphered. The fleet knew what to do without orders. Survival often depended on it.  
The new calculations were made. He would wait as long as he could, but they were ready for whatever happened next.

They staggered out of the tower. Jyn was almost carrying him, in spite of being exhausted, herself.  
The metal moon overhead made it all pointless, but she wasn’t going to stop trying, he knew. Was it admirable, or insane?  
He’d lived his life in a state of desperation, fighting for the barest scraps of hope, even as what he had to do for them slowly destroyed him. He wasn’t going to tell her to do anything else.  
Soon, the battle station would fire, though. He had no doubt Tarkin would destroy this place to keep his secrets.  
He thought they wouldn’t have to wait for it as he heard the ship’s engines, waited for the blaster fire to erase them. Then, it spun, and landed in front of them.  
Jyn saw who was on board. “Gerrera?”  
“Yes! Get on! We don’t have time!”  
Just as shocked, Cassian said, “How are you alive?”  
“I’ve been doing this a long time! Now, get on!”  
Jyn was saying, as they went up the ramp as quickly as they could, “You ran?”  
“Of course I ran! And now I’m saving you!” He strapped himself in.  
“What? Couldn’t you trust me?”  
“I don’t trust anyone! It’s why I’m still alive!”  
She couldn’t argue with that, and dragged Cassian aboard. Gerrera made a gesture to the pilot and the ship lifted off.  
It wouldn’t matter. They were too low. Once that thing fired, it was still over.

“You may fire when ready.”  
The weapon was powered, though at a mere fraction of its capacity. Hundreds of the crystals would have been drained and need to be replaced. A small price to pay, Tarkin believed. He smiled, the smile of a man who knew the power at his command and enjoyed exercising it.  
Then, one of his people turned to him and said, “Sir, the weapon won’t fire!”  
He forced himself to remain calm. “Explain this.”  
“The computers won’t allow us to finish the sequence! And they are speaking!”  
Hoping it wasn’t a countdown, he said, “Play it for me.”  
As the speakers came on, it was just, two sentences, three words each, over and over again. Six words that had disabled the most powerful battle station the galaxy had ever seen.  
A father’s voice, saying, “Stardust is here. Do not fire.”

Somehow, the small ship had reached the upper atmosphere and the rebel fleet. Jyn looked around the cabin. Counting the soldiers she had convinced to go on this suicide mission.  
Chirrut smiled at her, a bit weakly. Baze had his arm around him, and scowled at her for their injuries, but still seemed relieved to see her.  
Bodhi was calling back from the pilot’s chair that they were about to make the jump to light speed.  
K2 didn’t look good. Hopefully he could be repaired. He’d probably be surprised that she thought that.  
Cassian was sitting right next to her, looking relieved.  
There were over a dozen other rebels she hadn’t had the time to learn the names of. She had to make sure she did if they lived through this.

Vader stood on the bridge. The trap had been sprung, and none of the rebel fleet would escape. By now, Tarkin would have destroyed all trace of the project, he was sure.  
They emerged from hyperspace, only to see the enemy fleet jump away on alternative course, one pre-planned and random. They had been warned.  
The installation was still intact, not obliterated as he’d expected.  
There was a signal coming from the planet. It seemed Krennic had also lived. For now.  
He turned to his troops and ordered, “Send troops to the planet, and to the Death Star. I want Tarkin and Krennic here. Someone must answer for this failure.”

Rogue One had done its part. No one was asked to fight for the Rebellion again. Some did, of course. Chirrut stayed with the Rebellion, helping the youngsters learn the history of the Jedi, so much of which was lost. Baze stayed at his side. What the Force had brought together, nothing would part.  
Cassian left, though. He had seen and done too much and needed the time to heal. Years later, the fighting over, he returned, and joined the new Senate. Hoping that his experiences would help them to be better than they had been, or than he had been.  
K2 was repaired and remained with Cassian, though more as an adviser than a bodyguard. Perhaps it was the damage, perhaps he just was well past the time for a memory flush, but he had stopped taking the orders of anyone but himself. Some might call him a “droid rights advocate”. He thought they were stupid.  
Jyn stayed with the rebels, and rebelled. She did eventually learn all of their names, because as risky as her life was, there was time, now.  
Bodhi still suffered from the probes and the interrogations, but eventually recovered as best he could. He became one of the best pilots in the Rebellion, running supplies, and, when necessary, fighting. His was one of the few ships to survive the battle over the Death Star, and while he wasn’t the one that fired the fateful shot, he was satisfied to be present as it was destroyed.  
He took holos to share with his friends. It was a good day.


End file.
